“Encounters with Jesus: An Adulterous Woman”
Introduction:
I heard a story of a girl and a guy who were dating; they were a very religious couple. They went to the local Christian church and were there every time the doors were open. They tried very hard to center their relationship around Christ with God centered morals. They kept their relationship pure and made sure that they stayed above reproach. The temptation not to remain so pure was very strong, and Satan was continuous attacking them. One day they gave into temptation and decided to take advantage of a time that their parents were not home. In the meantime the girl’s father came in and caught them doing some improper things.
Put yourself in the shoes of that Father. How would or should you react to a situation like that?
Most of us here would not respond in the nicest of ways. The first thoughts that run through our head when we hear a story like that is:
1. How could they sin so blatantly against God
2. They will receive God’s judgment
3. I am glad I am not a sinner like them
There was a similar story that took place when Jesus was here on Earth, but perhaps even to a greater extent. This story leaves us a beautiful account of how our savior treated people, who were among him, especially those sinful people of his day. When Jesus was in Jerusalem he spent a lot of time around the temple teaching and preaching. He gained the respect of many of the people that were around including the Rabbis and teachers of the Law. One day as Jesus was in the temple the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus. They thought that they could trap Jesus. This woman brought to Jesus was caught in the very act of Adultery. I wonder what was going through the minds of the religious people of that day. I am sure they were thinking of the awful sin of this woman and they were probably angry about her sin. The Pharisees had hoped to trap Jesus by asking him what to do with that woman. If Jesus would have said to stone her he would have been legally in trouble because it was against the law for the Jews to enforce the death penalty, and if Jesus would have said “let her go”, the would have accused Jesus of being a liberal because the scriptures say that an adulterous is to be stoned on the account of two or three witnesses. I sometimes wonder where we would have fit into this story. In fact in sometimes scares me where I may fit in this story. Maybe I would have been looking down at this woman for her sin thinking I was better than her because I was not such a horrible sinner. The hard thing to do is to find a balance for how we are to treat sin. It would be wrong to have wanted this woman stoned because we need to show grace to the sinners and show them love as well, but on the other hand we can not overlook sin and condone it, in fact sin should be sickening to the Christian. How do we balance legalism and grace? I believe that Jesus sets us the perfect example for how to treat people and to view people.
Text: John 8:1-11
I. Jesus Convicted of Sin
When people came into the presence of Jesus they felt convicted about their sins that they had committed in the past. When Jesus went to Samaria and came across the woman at the well she was convicted about her past and wanted to change. When Jesus was passing through Jericho and went to Zacchaeus the Tax Collector’s house, Zacchaeus was convicted by the fact that he had mistreated people. When Jesus came to Simon the Pharisee’s house the sinful woman was convicted of her life of sin. Why is it that people were so convicted of sin in Jesus’ presence?
1. His Powerful Preaching
There is no doubt that Jesus was a powerful preacher. In fact I do not know if there ever has been a preacher that has affected people the way that Jesus did. Jesus spoke boldly and bluntly, he convicted people of their sins often by his powerful preaching, but can we attribute people’s conviction by his preaching. A sermon can have some effect on people, but in reality that effect in only temporal. You may hear the preacher preach and feel convicted about something said; you may have your toes stepped on and want to change. Most of the time though a sermon and preaching does not impact us enough to change us. When I first heard the gospel I was convicted by the preacher’s words, but had I not seen Christ in other people I never would have changed and my conviction would have been nothing more than an emotional stir. I do think it is important for us to put into practice things when we are convicted by the sermon. An “amen” does not make us right with the Lord, and agreeing is easy, but changing is not. As I said Jesus was a great preacher, greater than any other that ever has lived. People came by the myriads just to hear him preach. Stadiums were packed out to hear Jesus preach. He preached the best sermon ever called the “Sermon on the Mount”, but I do not think his preaching is what brought conviction and change to people.
2. His Deity
There is also no doubt that when Jesus came he was fully God and his mere presence would have made sinners feel uncomfortable. There was just something about Jesus’ presence that could not tolerate sin and people sensed that. People though were not changed because Jesus was God. Jesus could have claimed to be the Messiah until he was blue in the face and lives would not have been changed, but I think lives were changed for a different reason by Jesus.
3. His Character
I believe that Jesus’ preaching was effective and his deity cannot be denied, but people were changed because of his character. When people came into the presence of Jesus he lived in a way that impacted people. He lived his life without sinning. I would bet that if we were to poll the congregation this morning we would find that we were all impacted by the character of a person. Perhaps you can remember the godly character of a person that had an impact on you coming to the Lord. I remember the first time I came to church I was impacted by a few people in the youth group. One reason I came back to church was because people invited me out to eat after church. That may seem insignificant, but when I was shown unconditional love I was impacted and drawn to Jesus. I was drawn to Jesus because these people were different. I was impacted by the character of Christians. When Jesus came across people in his life people were impacted and changed because of his impact on them and his love that he showed them. Think of the love he showed Zacchaeus, the unpopular, short, tax collector coming to his house and eating with him. Think of the unconditional love he showed to the sinful woman, her life was changed. People’s lives where changed because of our savior’s character.
With the woman caught in the act of adultery Jesus showed he love that no one had ever seen. He could have condemned this woman of her sin, but he said that he did not condemn her, and showed he extreme love.
We all want to see people change their lives. We can sit around all day and complain about the wickedness of the world and immorality, but if we as Christians do not show people a Christ-like character people will not be impacted to the point of change.
II. Jesus Did Not Condemn the Sinners
When Jesus came to the Earth he came with authority and power. God had placed His authority of judgment into the hands of Jesus. If anybody that ever lived had the right to condemn sinners for the way in which they lived Jesus did. He lived his life perfectly and would not have been a hypocrite, but Jesus showed us the perfect example of hating the sin and loving the sinner.
As we read about the woman caught in adultery we see the love and compassion of Jesus. The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law wanted to have this woman stoned so they brought her to Jesus, who was respected as a great teacher. Jesus then said one of the most famous statements that he ever made. He said, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. At that point in time he was writing with his finger in the dirt. I do not know what Jesus was writing, but I believe he may have been writing down different sins that the Pharisees and teachers may have committed publicly exposing their sin. I believe that Jesus’ main point was that we all have sinned and have no right to condemn sinners. He was trying to say although this woman’s sin may seem disgusting; all sin separates us from God from the least to the greatest. Slowly all the onlookers went away, and only Jesus was left, and he said that he does not condemn her sin either.
Although Jesus did not condemn the sinner when he was here on Earth 2,000 years ago there is a reason for that. It is not because he did not have the authority to condemn, it is because the judgment was not appointed to be when Jesus was here on Earth, he did not come into the world to judge the world, but to save the world. There will come a time when all who are not in Christ will be condemned by Jesus.
How then should we treat sinners? How should we treat people who live really immoral lives? It is really easy to look at people who we know are immoral and to pass judgment on them. Jesus left us an example of how to treat people, and I think the best thing to do is to treat people with love regardless of their status as a sinner. We can hate the sin and love the sinner; we can treat immoral people lovingly and still not be guilty of their sin. I believe that is the best way for us to reach people. When people see a church that is not condemning of sinners they will be drawn in. We do not have to condemn sinners because God’s Word does the job for us. This does not mean that we do not confront people with their sins, because obviously Jesus did, but it means that we love them unconditionally. I think problems start to come when we see people as horrible sinners, because in reality we are no better, the only difference with us is that we have Jesus to remove our punishment for our sin.
Jesus never pulled any punches with people, he never held back the truth, but he was also very loving towards the immoral people of his day. Jesus had the perfect balance between grace and truth, and between law and grace.
III. Jesus Did Not Condone the Sin
Although Jesus never condemned the sinners of his day, he never condoned people’s sin. Jesus got angry with the moneychangers in the temple and drove them out with a whip because they had made his father’s house into a market. In fact when Jesus preached he preached the same message that John the Baptist did, “repent you brood of vipers”. Jesus always demanded repentance for those that came to him. He never overlooked sin. I love how Jesus spoke to the woman caught in adultery. After Jesus did not condemn her, he said, “Go away and leave your life of sin”.
I see a problem in the world today and that is sin is sometimes condoned in the name of the love of Christ. Although we should show people love and treat them as Christ would have that does not mean that we condone sin. Sine needs to be dealt with and sin should be sickening to God’s people. Just because we believe that we should not condemn the sinner does not mean that we should condone the sin. As you look across churches of this country you see that people are more and more condoning sin. Churches are now accepting homosexuality and other sins in the name of love.
My question for you is how do we show people love? Is it by tolerating what they do and letting it slide. If your kids misbehave you discipline them because you love them and you parents know that a lack of discipline is a lack of love.
I remember hearing the words from my parents when I was punished, “I am punishing you because I love you”. I remember thinking don’t spank me if you love me.
Hebrews 12:5-6
God does not condone our sin because He loves us, and we as God children should not condone the sin of others because we love people. Sometimes the best thing that you can do for a person is not condone their sin. Condoning sin does not bring people to repentance. Our hopes and desires with a person in sin should be for them to be restored to God and we must do what we can to bring that about. We must continually ask ourselves how we should deal with sin. I believe that Jesus sets the best example for how we should treat sinners.
1. Sinners should feel convicted in our presence
2. Sinners should not feel condemned in our presence
3. Sin should not be condoned in our presence
